Is the Unbeliever Not Being Judged Twice - First in Burning Hell and Then Second at the Lake of Fire?
No. It’s not two judgments. The unbeliever is condemned already, held in a place of torment now, and then brought up for one final judgment at the Great White Throne and cast into the lake of fire—the second death.
The Bible says, “He that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18). After death there is a holding place of torment—“in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23–24)—and Scripture speaks of “spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). But the formal judgment is future: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). At the Great White Throne, “the dead…were judged… and death and hell delivered up the dead… and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Revelation 20:11–15).
Now notice the simple truth: prison is not the court. A man may be held in jail awaiting trial—that’s not a second judgment. So the torment in hell is the holding of the already-condemned; the Great White Throne is the court where the sentence is set and executed; the lake of fire is the final end, the second death. The wicked are burned up, not given eternal life in flames (Malachi 4:1,3; Ezekiel 18:4).
So it’s not double judgment. It’s one condemnation carried from prison to court to execution: hell now as a holding place, the White Throne as judgment, and the lake of fire as the final, second death.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Discerning the Body of the Lord
59-0812 §59
Now, He did not go to the Gentiles. Did He? For the Gentiles wasn't looking for Him. And how many believes that God is infinite? Well sure, He is infinite. Then He cannot say one thing or do one thing here and do something over here, and be just. He has got to do the same thing. If He has got a better plan, then He ought to have done it in the first place. When God is called on the scene for anything, and the judgment that He makes there... If one sinner ever cried to God, and God saved him on the merits of his fai...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §75
Now, the bride went up, the remnant left here. And she is the one who come in the second resurrection. "Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, on which the second death has no power." That's right. The second resurrection will be the White Throne Judgment, then the church... "Don't you know," said Paul, "go amongst the unbelievers and the lawyers and so forth when the saints shall judge the earth." These matters should be judged before the church---not before the unjust magistrates and so f...
Daniel 9: The sixfold purpose of Gabriel's visitation
61-0730E §9
You know, I guess Brother Roy Slaughter and some of the old-timers here that started back yonder a long time ago... There was for about, I guess, the first three or four years of my ministry right here at the Tabernacle, I wouldn't even preach on the subject of hell, because I couldn't make out whether it was a burning place, whether it was a grave... And every time the Word spoke grave, I'd get the translation. Said, Hades. Hades is the grave. Every time it spoke of hell---hades, the grave... And I just left it al...
Future home of the heavenly Bridegroom and the earthly Bride
64-0802 §132
And then when the earth is restored by the same thing, there can be no more cursing, no more storms, no more winds, no more taphoons---typhoons rather; you're reconciled. Man and God has met. The new earth will be put on its Eden beauty again. The new earth will spread forth her... After her baptism of fire, just think, she'll catch afire and burn up. The elements will burn with fervent heat; all the works in the earth will burn; all the water will explode; it'll ignite and blow all---everything will blow up. Volca...
Hebrews, Chapter 2, part 2
57-0825E §11
God must have first place in your heart, first place in your life, first place in everything that you do or what you are. God must be first. He doesn't want the second place. He doesn't deserve the second place. He deserves the best and the first and all that we've got. He deserves it! Blessed be His holy name. For God also bearing ... witness, [He gave testimony] both with signs and wonders, ... divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will ... [Not what men say, what the church said; but...